The Stuff That Goes On In My Head….

Monthly Archives: January 2011

We homeschooled when my three sons were growing up. When we started this adventure my oldest son was in 6th grade, the middle one was in 1st grade and the youngest was in kindergarten. Some people worry about what kids might miss out on if they are not in public school. What about all the things they won’t be exposed to? Like what, I wondered? Drugs? Ha. Not where we lived.

My sons’ drug education began when one of us found a crack pipe on the ground across the street from our house. It was made with a baby food jar and an ink pen that someone took the innards out of. Since I had to tell them what it was I decided it was a good time for a field trip. We went to the police station and took a tour of their museum so my sons could see the pipes and such that had been confiscated. (I think they were really more interested in the counterfeit money.)

I had to explain to my oldest when he was 12 or 13 that the young man who lived on the corner didn’t really want to be his friend. This guy had come to our house a time or two when he saw my son outside. He was about 20 years old. Sorry, son. He’s not looking for a friend; he’s looking for a customer. (And no, my sons weren’t deprived of friends. We had to scale back on outside activities just to get all the school work done.)

Another bit of education happened at a park. We found a metal pot scrubbing pad that had a “tail” and was burned a bit. I know this is nuts, but I brought the thing home. I remember putting it on a piano in the den. I don’t know why I did that. I think I had thrown it away? – or was it still there? – when something crazy happened and we had to call cops. Probably someone shooting a gun in the woods behind our house. (We had moved by this time. Still in the exciting area of town though.) Anyway, a cop was in our back yard and for some reason he walked through our house to get to the front. If that stupid thing was still on the piano he didn’t see it. I just remember being extremely relieved – so it was either there and he didn’t see it, or I had just recently tossed it in the garbage. Either way, it was a very narrow miss!

We also saw another one of those pads along with some spilled baking soda on the parking lot of the convenience store on the corner. Since I’d explained things by then (I even used pamphlets) they knew what that was about.

One day we were going to do a science demonstration and I needed a single edge razor blade. The guys stayed at the house while I walked to a different convenience store that is no longer in existence. The razor blades were hanging behind the counter and when I told the man what I wanted he asked, “Just one?” I told him yes, and he opened the package and sold me a single blade. I couldn’t help laughing a little when I told my sons we wouldn’t go to that store any more and why.

Well…they didn’t miss out on drug education.

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Last night I wrote in my Gratitude Journal, ” I’m thankful this long day is over.” It wasn’t over the top bad – just one weird thing here and another there sort of day. Sometimes, one thing can get tangled up with another in my head, and yesterday two things did.

A lady called and said she was from the credit card company that my husband and I each have a card with. I’m not going to tell you what she said her name was, but I thought it sounded like a pole dancer’s name, so I didn’t know whether she made that up or not. This was the second call in a few days and both times they asked for my husband, who was not home either time. This time I told the lady he was at work and asked if everything was OK, since this was the second call in just a few days. She said, “Yes” and asked if I am an authorized user on his card. When I told her I am, she said she needed to update some info.

Well, now. When we were children we were told not to talk to strangers, and now we are told not to give out our info. You could waterboard me and not even get my phone number, so there is no way this lady’s getting any info from me. I didn’t even ask what kind of info. I just told her we’ll take care of it later and quickly hung up.

Last night my husband called the company to see if this was a legitimate call. Maybe, is what they said. Also, maybe not. They took us off the marketing list so we won’t be getting any calls that aren’t necessary. Yea! But, what about that call? Is someone digging for something?

Then, my computer crashed. I had turned it off before my favorite Tuesday night shows came on with no intention of turning it back on till today. I decided to turn it back on at about 8:15 (after hubby got off the phone with the credit card company) to run virus and Trojan checks. I used my husband’s card to buy something online last week (thinking I was using my own card – didn’t look close enough) and wondered if the phone call had anything to do with the online purchase. Maybe someone put a key logger or something on my computer. And then Windows crashed.

It’s probably a sign of low intelligence to connect one thing with another and come to conclusions that are wrong without considering other possibilities. It also might be a sign one is living in Panic Mode. I told myself to stay calm and consider other possibilities.

I thought about it being Tuesday, and that is the day that Windows does updates. I have my computer set to automatically update, and I figured something may have gone wrong with that, and when I restarted the computer following the update, it went bonkers. Windows did a repair and all is well. I don’t know why it crashed. I did my scans. Clean machine. That’s good. But this morning my husband humored me and downloaded a portable scanning program onto a flash drive and ran it, just to make super sure. All is still well.

I also called the credit card company today because my husband didn’t tell the person he spoke with that the lady on the phone asked me if I was an authorized user on his card. I thought that might give them a clue as to whether or not the call was legit. I think the lady I spoke with thinks I’m mentally ill. When I told her, “The paranoid live to be paranoid another day,” she was so kind. She said, “Aaawwww” and then explained different things that can seem like there is a problem with someone messing with our cards, but it’s not, just so I won’t be scared if any of them ever happen to me. I told her I was glad she told me those things and that I have their Identity Theft Protection and I’m scared to cancel it. We wished each other a good day before we hung up.

There were a couple of other weird things, too. One of them has to do with an email I sent to someone who thinks I sent it to the wrong person. Right name, wrong person? It could happen. Peoples’ names get in my contact list that I don’t know. But, this other stuff is for another day.

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I said to my husband, “We need to go clean out our closet. Just the clothes part today.” He said, “OK.”

We went into the walk in closet. Husband eyeballed his hanging clothes and said, “I wear all that.” He then walked out of the closet.

I got him to dig into a few particulars – the folded clothes, the things hanging on the other side, his jackets. He took out 3 or 4 things.

A good hour later, I am still going through my clothes, one item at a time, checking for stains, if it fits, if it’s too worn to wear, but only in a few spots so it’s a good piece of fabric for artwork, do I not wear it and it’s good enough to give away…

Husband is gone to visit his dad.

And he doesn’t “wear all that,” but I wear some of the things he doesn’t, so I’m leaving his hanging things alone.